Rick Astley Has Reshot The Most Epic Music Video Ever Made
Has he finally given us up?
This article is more than 2 years old
The year 1987 marked the first televised voyage of the crew of Star Trek: The Next Generation; the release of U2’s The Joshua Tree; and the epic battle between vampires, vampire hunters, and grumpy grandpas in The Lost Boys. It’s also the year English singer Rick Astley made some pretty big promises to us all. That was the year Astley released “Never Gonna Give You Up”; the first single off his inaugural studio album Whenever You Need Somebody. In that tune, Astley promised to never give us up, let us down, or desert us. He also made some strongly worded commitments about never making us cry, saying goodbye, telling a lie, or hurting us. Well, now it seems like Rick Astley is really skirting the edge of some or all of those things. The Rickroll god has remade his epic music video… as an insurance commercial.
That’s right. The 1987 Rick Astley music video that so many have forced others to watch–through various devious means, such as promising an epic trailer for a long-delayed movie in a link that instead leads to Astley dancing in, among other things, a coat about 952 sizes too big–has been remade by CSAA Insurance, with Astley himself lip syncing to his 35 year old hit in faithfully recreated sets, and even wearing similar clothes. You can watch the video below, along with an edit that compares the original music video to the new ad.
As you can see in the comparison video, it isn’t an identical match; Rick Astley gives us slightly different dance moves for example. The lovely woman in the original video whose dancing somehow manages to be the least alluring dance this side of Molly Shannon’s Mary Catherine Gallagher is replaced with a CSAA employee marking off bullet points on a dry erase board. The single most coked up dancing bartender in the history of bartending is replaced with a dude getting a drink from a water cooler.
Rick Astley isn’t the first music artist whose work CSAA has used to promote their insurance. A couple of years ago the company released a series of ads using old hit singles, but with altered lyrics to fit their brand. The commercials included ones that used Air Supply’s “I’m All Out Of Love” and K-Ci & JoJo’s “All My Life.” You can see those ads below.
Rick Astley endures as a wonderful example of the riches that can be enjoyed by a celebrity who knows how to take a joke. It was in the late ’00s that Astley became aware of the Rickroll phenomenon, and it was one he ultimately embraced. The crooner became the most memorable part of the 2008 Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade when he Rickrolled the event in the flesh. His career has seen a huge resurgence since.
If Rick Astley has his way, “Never Gonna Give You Up” may soon become part of the U.S.’s executive office. When the hit single turned 35 at the end of July, the singer suggested that since 35 is the minimum age an American can legally run for President, his song should be eligible. Of course, the single was recorded in England, so this would no doubt start another surge in “birther” activism.
